IT IS Melbourne's extraordinary good fortune to be the host city for an event such as the Australian Open. Tennis is a genuinely global sport and its stars are some of the foremost athletes in the world. The annual influx of players, their entourages, media and other spectators - from various far-flung nations - gives this city a thrilling vibe during Oz Open fortnight.

It happens at the height of the holiday season, in an opulent and still-expanding facility by the Yarra, within a short walk of the city centre. The spectacle it provides is up there with the best that international sport can offer. Hopefully it will continue for as long as tennis is played.

But this is real life and, as such, it isn't without downside. Tennis, one of the first modern professional sports, has for years provided some of the most vivid images of the worst of sport and sportsmanship. Not only does the game make its best players - still young men and women - outrageously wealthy, the combination of wealth and fame it provides also brings power. And power, as Lord Acton observed, tends to corrupt.

Perhaps cycling's problem was that Lance Armstrong reached a point of absolute power within his sport and was, thus, corrupted absolutely. Sports administrators must ensure that, amid this age of celebrity, their biggest stars are not given freedom to run unchecked.

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At every level, tennis has long produced players capable of poor behaviour and bad sportsmanship. It can be a frustrating game to play; it brings physical and psychological stress; it is subject to umpiring decisions that can sometimes be contentious.

Among the elite, bad behaviour on tennis courts has been highlighted through the decades. In the 1960s, the sports pages of Australian newspapers regularly carried stories of the self-indulgent Bob Hewitt. By the beginning of the '70s, Romania's Ilie ''Nasty'' Nastase was the sport's enfant terrible. Then there came the abrasive Jimmy Connors and the obnoxious, out of control, John McEnroe.

As the best player in the world in his time, McEnroe set an appalling example to a generation.

American players in particular took their cues from him and disrespectful behaviour towards on-court officials became commonplace.

Then one day at the 1990 Australian Open, McEnroe's cynical exploitation of the rules relating to misconduct was exposed. Unaware of a recent rule change, he unwittingly overstepped the mark and was defaulted from a fourth-round match against Sweden's Mikael Pernfors. It was a telling moment.

The two best players of the 1990s, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, influenced the game for the better. Sampras was by nature benign, while Agassi overcame his earlier precocity to ultimately achieve recognition as a statesman of his sport.

Then there came Roger Federer. While the influence of the Swiss maestro on the game's conduct is largely lost amid the well of admiration for his sublime play, the degree to which he has been a force for good is immeasurable.

Interestingly, and unusually, it is perhaps now the case that female tennis players are more open to criticism on the issues of behaviour and sportsmanship than their male counterparts.

In recent days, Serena Williams, the greatest player of her generation, has been widely criticised for her lack of grace after a surprise quarter-final loss to her countrywoman, Sloane Stephens.

Victoria Azarenka (below) then appeared to ruthlessly exploit the injury time-out provision in Thursday's second semi-final. And, as you may have heard, these incidents occurred against the aural backdrop of the relentless, and contrived, shrieking of Azarenka and Maria Sharapova.

It's a mystery. When this pair hit the ball into the net, the shriek is immediately stifled. When the ball stays in play, it is elongated so as to continue as the opponent plays her next shot. If confirmation is required that the noise is other than a natural response to physical effort, this surely is it.

As for exploitation of the injury time-out rule, Azarenka is not the first to appear culpable. That tennis allows players such freedom to halt play, with no apparent recourse when stoppages are suspected of being opportunistic, is laughable.

Not only is it hard to think of another sport in which a rule so open to abuse would be maintained, it's also hard to imagine practitioners of other sports so brazenly contravening the spirit of their game.

Tennis produces some amazingly wilful competitors.

It also seems to produce the weakest of administrators. McEnroe admitted in his autobiography that, as he ran amok, no one was prepared to stand up to him. The shrieking issue has been with us for years. The injury time out leaves the game wide open to abuse with no action taken.

It is hard to think of another sport so lacking in administrative will and courage when it comes to taking on its players.

Tennis is a beautiful sport played by magnificent female and male athletes. Alas, its excesses, which seem to be part of the game's culture and to which a blind eye is constantly turned, frequently diminish it.